“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
Hi! The tragedy at La Promesse College Evangelique affected a member of our family here at Coram Deo. Samuel Marcelin is a teacher who works at a local Christian mission school and lives here at Coram Deo. His cousin Gerta was the secretary at the La Promesse school. She was also a student in the afternoons attending a professional program at the school. She was sitting at her desk in the school office when the school collapsed around 10:30am last Friday morning. She was trapped under the rubble until late Saturday afternoon when searchers found her. She was pinned and her lower leg had been amputated. She was conscious when removed from the rubble and was rushed in an ambulance to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital in the Delmas 19 area. She talked with the workers in the ambulance and gave them her name and family information. She told them about her family, the Marcelin family who lived in the Delmas 31 area and gave the workers her family’s telephone number. The family was called and told that she had been rescued and was in hospital. Shortly after arriving at the hospital her condition deteriorated and she died. The falling concrete had damaged her body too much in order for her to survive. She was only 26 years old. Officially she is body number 93 recovered from the collapsed school. Gerta was engaged to be married and the marriage was scheduled to take place in December. Her fiancé was a secondary school teacher at the same school and he happened to be in the office too at the time of the collapse. The falling concrete killed him. His body was recovered and taken to the morgue. Now the families instead of planning a marriage ceremony will be planning a funeral for this couple. Both of them are Christians and are now together in heaven. Keep the families in prayer as they now make funeral arrangements.
On Saturday the UN and Haitian police secured the areas around the school preventing people access to the site. This gave the rescue teams more room to work and improve access to emergency vehicles. Special rescue teams from Martinique and the United States came in with search dogs and other equipment to look for survivors. On Saturday only 4 survivors were pulled from the rubble. In total 150 people were treated for injuries at the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital and also at General Hospital. The residents at this state hospital called off their 4-week strike and treated the injured from the school. We were at the emergency room on Saturday and it was a busy place. The medical staff did all they could to help these children and looked after them well. The people who were in the emergency room during the strike were transferred to the orthopedics department at the hospital. Parents of the school children were searching from hospital to hospital to find word on their missing children. At General Hospital a list was posted outside with names of children who had been treated. At the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital, a worker there would search for names on their list as families came seeking for information.
On Sunday Samuel was near the school site along with some other people. A young woman was upset and pleading with the police for help. She had been in cell phone contact with her sister who was a kindergarten teacher at the school and was trapped in the rubble in the lowest level along with her students. She had told her sister that herself and 12 of her students were still alive and within the rubble. There were a lot of Haitian men who wanted the rescue process to speed up and they felt that time was being lost. In the end a large group approached the school site and riot police sent them back. The Haitian people are very determined and were willing to tear down the school by hand. Since Saturday there have been no survivors removed from the rubble. I don’t know what happened to this kindergarten teacher and her students.
The mother who last Friday was waiting for word on her 5 missing children now knows what happened to them. All 5 were killed in the school collapse. 3 of her children were in the philo and rheto classes, which are the last 2 years of secondary school.
We were at General Hospital today and all the students who were in the emergency room have now either been discharged or transferred to other departments in the hospital. The busiest area at the hospital today was the morgue. There were at least 50 people waiting outside making burial arrangements. The government has said that they would help the families with funerals. Samuel’s family will be contacting the mayor’s office in Petionville tomorrow for information. Other schools in the area have offered to take in the displaced surviving students from the La Promesse School. The pastor/owner of the school built the school himself without the assistance of an engineer. The amount of cement and the amount of rebar used was less than what is required. The pastor/owner of the school has been arrested and charged with involuntary homicide and is currently in jail awaiting judicial proceedings. There is still a lot of rubble to remove and the search and body recovery process is ongoing. In the Petionville district where the school was located the mayor has announced that Tuesday and Wednesday are 2 days of mourning for the victims. Pray for the families of all those who lost their lives and for the searchers as they continue to look for survivors and recover bodies. Pray also for the injured who are recovering from their injuries in hospital.
There is a lot going on. I thought that I would send out a mid-week update.
Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
photos - school collapse - La Promesse College Evangelique
La Promesse College Evangelique is a private christian school run by a haitian pastor. Around 700 children attend this school. It is a 3 storey school that collapsed Friday morning with all the children inside.
The third and second stories collapsed onto the first trapping and killing children inside. In the beginning people were using hands, hammers and whatever they could find to help to free the children. Heavy equipment wasn't yet available and the school is located in a ravine area on a hillside in the Nerette section of Delmas 64.
UN military, UN and haitian police as well as fire department and the red cross were involved as well. The back section collapsed down taken out houses below as well. Poor construction is thought to be the blame. The third storey was under construction and not finished yet when the school collapsed.
The street around the school is narrow and the housing is dense. It was difficult to move around.
The UN brought in a light standard to use for the rescue effort. They had to move this in by hand as the vehicle could not maneuver this heavy piece of equipment down the narrow clogged street. A bunch of soldiers maneuvered it into position.photos - various
Guerson Delit and his mother are from Jeremie and they are staying here until the hydrocephalus surgeries are over. He's a cute baby with a ready smile!
Cawens and his mother have been staying here at Coram Deo since Friday. They are from the Gonaives area and got a ride to Port-au-Prince in a UN helicopter. Pray the surgeries can be held this week. Both these children are in excellent shape.
Sthorley Bonhomme is a student here at Coram Deo. Last Friday he was sitting in the back of a parked tap-tap near his home while eating something and the owner of the vehicle hit him in the eye. The mother came to us on Monday and explained to us the situation. We brought him to the eye clinic on Delmas 31 at Grace Children's Hospital for treatment. As part of the school program here at Coram Deo we try to help the children with their medical needs as well. Continue to keep the school program in prayer.
We were surprised to find David Marzelus on the ground in front of the emergency department at General Hospital. We brought this "lost sheep" home to his family but his family does not want him. This is a difficult situation to handle as there are really no missions taking in adult handicapped people. * GRAPHIC PHOTO!!!! - The next photo is of the elderly woman who suffered in the emergency department of General Hospital while the residents are on strike. Mercifully, she died Monday afternoon. Her devoted husband is standing by her side. If you don't want to look at the photo scroll past the photo quickly. I put in this photo because I want people to understand how the poor suffer in getting medical care.
haiti update - november 8, 2008
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” I tell you in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:4-7
Hi! This week we found a “lost sheep” at General Hospital. On Tuesday afternoon we were by the emergency room and saw a body lying on the ground outside the doors of the entrance. The guards told us that this individual had been brought to the grounds of the hospital that morning. When we went up closer we found out that we knew this person! His name is David Marzelus and we have known him for years. He is mentally handicapped and has seizures. We have helped the family out over the years with medicine and sometimes he would come over and visit us. He was lying on the ground recovering from a seizure and we were happy to find him. The only problem though was how he got there in the first place. The family in the past sometimes would come over and tell us how he would cause problems near his home and we suspected that the family had dumped him off on the grounds of the hospital. We thought that we would first go over to see the family. The family lives in the Delmas 31 area and the father explained to us that David had been missing for a couple of weeks and that he was prone to running away. When we told him that we found David on the ground at General Hospital he gave us an answer that we didn’t expect. He told us that he didn’t want him back and would just leave him there and visit from time to time and that he would try and visit him on Friday. I didn’t know what to say to him but we weren’t going to leave David lying outside the emergency department. We went back to the hospital and picked him off the ground and put him inside the pick-up truck and brought him back to his family’s home on Delmas 31. As we approached the house with David (he was able to walk with assistance) we told the neighbors that we had found a “lost sheep” and were bringing him home. The neighbors followed us and the family said thank-you when we got in front of their home. The ending didn’t work out as it is in the bible story. Pray for David and his family.
November 1st and 2nd are holidays in Haiti. In the voodoo religion they are holidays for the dead. People will visit graveyards and offer food and drink to keep the spirits happy and will ask the spirits for favors. On Saturday afternoon we exited the gates of the hospital and had just turned onto the street when we saw a large crowd of people approaching. We pulled off to the side to let them pass. The crowd was about 3,000 in number and was mainly young adults dressed in the “rapper/gangster” style of dress. They were walking to the main cemetery downtown and were in a festive mood. Pastor Pierre was with us and he mentioned that there wasn’t one Christian in the bunch. They walked past us and only one of them rapped on the windows of the truck. We smiled and waved back. On Sunday afternoon as we were heading to the hospital there was another group again but smaller in number and we took another route to go around them. Pray for missions in Haiti that strive to turn souls from voodoo to the Christian faith.
The elderly lady with the rotten legs died on Monday afternoon. She suffered much throughout her ordeal in the emergency room. Her husband never left her side since the day she entered the hospital.
There is also a man who is in the emergency room for the last couple of weeks. He came from Jeremie after a motorcycle accident. His leg is badly broken in 3 places; femur, tibia and knee; and he needs surgery to put in metal plates to fix it. We visited the Baptist Mission Hospital in Fermathe and spoke with Dr. Bernard. He sent us to see the orthopedic surgeon who works at the hospital. This surgeon is one of the best orthopedic surgeons in Haiti and he donates his time one day a week to the hospital. He examined the x-rays and determined what needed to be done to help this man. He told us he would operate free of charge but that the metal plates and supplies would have to be rented from the hospital supply company. We don’t have the funds to be able to help the family out with this but they have been contacting friends and family to try to come up with the funds. Pray for their efforts and that this man can get the surgery to fix his leg.
A couple of the prisoners have been transferred back to prison and there are still 2 young men chained to their beds. There is not much we can do to help them get medical care as they are in the hands of the state. Please continue to pray for an end to the hospital strikes and that the people still in the hospitals can one day get the medical care that they need.
It is beginning to look like the neurosurgery surgeries cannot be held at Hopital La Paix on Delmas 33 because of the ongoing strike. Discussions are being made with Bernard Mevs Hospital on Airport Road to hold the surgeries there. Pray a plan can be put into place for the upcoming hydrocephalus surgeries that are supposed to be held November 13th-15th. We now have an additional hydrocephalus baby and mother staying here at Coram Deo temporarily until the surgical date. Calwens is a 6 month-old baby from the Gonaives area. She was in the state hospital in Gonaives with her baby when the flooding from the tropical storms hit the area in August. Since that time the UN has been keeping an eye on her and Calwens. She came to Port-au-Prince in a UN helicopter on Friday and was transported by them to Healing Hands. We picked her up from there. The baby is in good shape for surgery. Pray that all the children selected by the surgical team will be able to receive surgery.
On Friday we were able to assist Angel Missions in getting a medical visa at the US Consulate for Paul Elie Blanchard, another hydrocephalus baby. Pray for the travel arrangements being made for him.
One of the problems in Haiti is poor construction standards. The poor will build in areas where there should not be building. There are slum areas on the hillsides of Port-au-Prince. On Friday morning a 3 story Christian school building collapsed killing and trapping children and teachers inside. A lot of people rushed to help out and things were pretty chaotic. We drove as far as we could in the pickup truck and then walked up a path on the side of the ravine. As we got close to the school the UN was trying to keep crowds back. All of a sudden the crowd started to run down the road in the opposite direction while we were heading up and we had to dive behind a building to get out of the way of the stampeding people. There was a Haitian doctor at the school that I know and we went inside the building to try and help out. The back part of the school had collapsed. The front part was still standing and we went into the building by this entrance. We could hear children that were crying for help from the rubble who were trapped. The one section where there were children still alive was near what had been a stairwell on the lower level. There was a small hole and we could see and talk to one of the children. They calmed down a little after being reassured that they would be helped. There were large sections of concrete that couldn’t be moved by hand and no heavy equipment to help out. People working on trying to rescue people from the top part of the building were pounding on cement causing dust and cement bits to fall down below. We had to go out of the building a few times to tell them to be careful and not to cause another collapse. There was one person by the hole in the collapsed room and we handed him “support bricks” to try and stabilize the area. There were shovels and we helped to shovel loose debris aside. There were dead people in the section along with the living. One of the bodies was blocking access to the living and people were discussing how to get past the body that was pinned under the concrete. In the end some not very nice things were done to the body to get it out of the way. While this was done the police ordered people out of this section. Outside waiting were families of the missing. One woman had 2 children who were in the hospital. One child has his leg amputated and the other had a fracture. She was waiting on word of her third child who was missing. Lukner spoke with one parent who has 5 children registered at the school. All of them are missing inside the collapsed building. Special rescue teams are coming in to help. They are needed because of the instability of the building and also will have the equipment and skills needed to get to the trapped children. As of last night there are officially 50 dead, and 80 injured in a school with an enrolment of around 700 children. While we were inside the building there were 7 bodies that had been pulled out of the rubble and left in a room off to the side. People in the area said that the school wasn’t properly built. Because it is in a ravine the back part that was collapsed was higher and I think didn’t have the proper support built into it. It collapsed while a third story was being constructed. Children were on recess break and when the trembling sound was heard some rushed into the building instead of out. Pray for those helping to release the children from the rubble and the living who are still trapped inside. That is all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Hi! This week we found a “lost sheep” at General Hospital. On Tuesday afternoon we were by the emergency room and saw a body lying on the ground outside the doors of the entrance. The guards told us that this individual had been brought to the grounds of the hospital that morning. When we went up closer we found out that we knew this person! His name is David Marzelus and we have known him for years. He is mentally handicapped and has seizures. We have helped the family out over the years with medicine and sometimes he would come over and visit us. He was lying on the ground recovering from a seizure and we were happy to find him. The only problem though was how he got there in the first place. The family in the past sometimes would come over and tell us how he would cause problems near his home and we suspected that the family had dumped him off on the grounds of the hospital. We thought that we would first go over to see the family. The family lives in the Delmas 31 area and the father explained to us that David had been missing for a couple of weeks and that he was prone to running away. When we told him that we found David on the ground at General Hospital he gave us an answer that we didn’t expect. He told us that he didn’t want him back and would just leave him there and visit from time to time and that he would try and visit him on Friday. I didn’t know what to say to him but we weren’t going to leave David lying outside the emergency department. We went back to the hospital and picked him off the ground and put him inside the pick-up truck and brought him back to his family’s home on Delmas 31. As we approached the house with David (he was able to walk with assistance) we told the neighbors that we had found a “lost sheep” and were bringing him home. The neighbors followed us and the family said thank-you when we got in front of their home. The ending didn’t work out as it is in the bible story. Pray for David and his family.
November 1st and 2nd are holidays in Haiti. In the voodoo religion they are holidays for the dead. People will visit graveyards and offer food and drink to keep the spirits happy and will ask the spirits for favors. On Saturday afternoon we exited the gates of the hospital and had just turned onto the street when we saw a large crowd of people approaching. We pulled off to the side to let them pass. The crowd was about 3,000 in number and was mainly young adults dressed in the “rapper/gangster” style of dress. They were walking to the main cemetery downtown and were in a festive mood. Pastor Pierre was with us and he mentioned that there wasn’t one Christian in the bunch. They walked past us and only one of them rapped on the windows of the truck. We smiled and waved back. On Sunday afternoon as we were heading to the hospital there was another group again but smaller in number and we took another route to go around them. Pray for missions in Haiti that strive to turn souls from voodoo to the Christian faith.
The elderly lady with the rotten legs died on Monday afternoon. She suffered much throughout her ordeal in the emergency room. Her husband never left her side since the day she entered the hospital.
There is also a man who is in the emergency room for the last couple of weeks. He came from Jeremie after a motorcycle accident. His leg is badly broken in 3 places; femur, tibia and knee; and he needs surgery to put in metal plates to fix it. We visited the Baptist Mission Hospital in Fermathe and spoke with Dr. Bernard. He sent us to see the orthopedic surgeon who works at the hospital. This surgeon is one of the best orthopedic surgeons in Haiti and he donates his time one day a week to the hospital. He examined the x-rays and determined what needed to be done to help this man. He told us he would operate free of charge but that the metal plates and supplies would have to be rented from the hospital supply company. We don’t have the funds to be able to help the family out with this but they have been contacting friends and family to try to come up with the funds. Pray for their efforts and that this man can get the surgery to fix his leg.
A couple of the prisoners have been transferred back to prison and there are still 2 young men chained to their beds. There is not much we can do to help them get medical care as they are in the hands of the state. Please continue to pray for an end to the hospital strikes and that the people still in the hospitals can one day get the medical care that they need.
It is beginning to look like the neurosurgery surgeries cannot be held at Hopital La Paix on Delmas 33 because of the ongoing strike. Discussions are being made with Bernard Mevs Hospital on Airport Road to hold the surgeries there. Pray a plan can be put into place for the upcoming hydrocephalus surgeries that are supposed to be held November 13th-15th. We now have an additional hydrocephalus baby and mother staying here at Coram Deo temporarily until the surgical date. Calwens is a 6 month-old baby from the Gonaives area. She was in the state hospital in Gonaives with her baby when the flooding from the tropical storms hit the area in August. Since that time the UN has been keeping an eye on her and Calwens. She came to Port-au-Prince in a UN helicopter on Friday and was transported by them to Healing Hands. We picked her up from there. The baby is in good shape for surgery. Pray that all the children selected by the surgical team will be able to receive surgery.
On Friday we were able to assist Angel Missions in getting a medical visa at the US Consulate for Paul Elie Blanchard, another hydrocephalus baby. Pray for the travel arrangements being made for him.
One of the problems in Haiti is poor construction standards. The poor will build in areas where there should not be building. There are slum areas on the hillsides of Port-au-Prince. On Friday morning a 3 story Christian school building collapsed killing and trapping children and teachers inside. A lot of people rushed to help out and things were pretty chaotic. We drove as far as we could in the pickup truck and then walked up a path on the side of the ravine. As we got close to the school the UN was trying to keep crowds back. All of a sudden the crowd started to run down the road in the opposite direction while we were heading up and we had to dive behind a building to get out of the way of the stampeding people. There was a Haitian doctor at the school that I know and we went inside the building to try and help out. The back part of the school had collapsed. The front part was still standing and we went into the building by this entrance. We could hear children that were crying for help from the rubble who were trapped. The one section where there were children still alive was near what had been a stairwell on the lower level. There was a small hole and we could see and talk to one of the children. They calmed down a little after being reassured that they would be helped. There were large sections of concrete that couldn’t be moved by hand and no heavy equipment to help out. People working on trying to rescue people from the top part of the building were pounding on cement causing dust and cement bits to fall down below. We had to go out of the building a few times to tell them to be careful and not to cause another collapse. There was one person by the hole in the collapsed room and we handed him “support bricks” to try and stabilize the area. There were shovels and we helped to shovel loose debris aside. There were dead people in the section along with the living. One of the bodies was blocking access to the living and people were discussing how to get past the body that was pinned under the concrete. In the end some not very nice things were done to the body to get it out of the way. While this was done the police ordered people out of this section. Outside waiting were families of the missing. One woman had 2 children who were in the hospital. One child has his leg amputated and the other had a fracture. She was waiting on word of her third child who was missing. Lukner spoke with one parent who has 5 children registered at the school. All of them are missing inside the collapsed building. Special rescue teams are coming in to help. They are needed because of the instability of the building and also will have the equipment and skills needed to get to the trapped children. As of last night there are officially 50 dead, and 80 injured in a school with an enrolment of around 700 children. While we were inside the building there were 7 bodies that had been pulled out of the rubble and left in a room off to the side. People in the area said that the school wasn’t properly built. Because it is in a ravine the back part that was collapsed was higher and I think didn’t have the proper support built into it. It collapsed while a third story was being constructed. Children were on recess break and when the trembling sound was heard some rushed into the building instead of out. Pray for those helping to release the children from the rubble and the living who are still trapped inside. That is all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Saturday, November 1, 2008
photos - hospital strike
This young man is suffering from a head injury. He was beaten senseless on the street and dropped off at the emergency rooom at General Hospital. He has been there for 2 weeks now and is slowly improving. He has no family or anyone else visiting him or looking after him.
Sunday afternoon we loaded Thomas onto the pickup truck for the trip over to the Brothers of Charity Hospice located in Cite Pele. The mother shown here sitting beside him refused to spend the evening at his bedside and we ended up taking Thomas back to the emergency department at General Hospital. He died early Tuesday morning.
Kiki is the newest resident here at Coram Deo. He was born with only a partial arm. He is able to have some use of this arm and can use it to feed himself. He is happy to be here!
Kiki is now going to school for the first time in his life and is learning how to write with a pencil. 
Here is a serious student pose by the children living here at Coram Deo. Benson, the boy in the middle is quite taken by Kiki and loves to help him out. Kiki is fitting in well with everyone here.photos - various children
Widenico Desilien is a 3-year-old girl who has bowed legs caused by a vitamin D deficiency. We are trying to find medical care for her before the bowing gets worse.
Fedner Alphonse lives here at Coram Deo and helps out around the house and looking after the younger children. His 25 year old brother died suddenly a few weeks ago after an asthma attack.
Chardlyne Jules was operated on for hydrocephalus in May 2008. Her family contacted us this week to say that she had died.
Marcson Marcelin is a 2-month-old baby with a beginning hydrocephalus. Pray we can find a way to help him before his head starts getting larger.
Angelo Lafortune recently came back from the United States after a follow-up visit with his neurosurgeon. His tumor isn't growing back and he didn't require another surgery for the hematoma he suffered after a fall here in Haiti. He's a cute kid!haiti update - november 1, 2008
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.” Psalm 89:14,15
Hi! This week was busy dealing with the effects of the residents’ strike at the state hospitals. We have been going to the hospital daily. Last Saturday afternoon we went with Pastor Pierre to meet Thomas, one of the people with gangrene. There was another church group in the emergency room as well visiting the people and praying with them. They also brought them bags of drinking water. Thomas was in bad shape and I wasn’t sure that he would survive. He had already been in the hospital for 2 months untreated and not being looked after by his family. What started out as a boil on his behind turned into a severe case of gangrene that had spread down his leg. We wanted to find out if he was a Christian. He was and asked for prayer. We talked with him about trying to find another place for him at the Brothers of Charity Hospice which is located in Cite Pele. The plan was that if we could make arrangements there we would transfer him out of General Hospital the next day. We went and spoke with the Brothers of Charity and they agreed to take him in. We borrowed a stretcher from them and went back to General Hospital on Sunday to find that Thomas’s mother was with him. I guess the phone call that we had made Thursday helped out after all to get his family to come to the hospital. We then transported Thomas in the back of the pickup truck and drove over to Cite Pele. He was placed in a bed there and I thought that now everything is settled for him but that was not the case. We went back to Cite Pele late in the afternoon. The Brothers of Charity were angry with Thomas’s mother. They had asked her to stay and look after her son for the evening and she refused. I tried to explain to them that the family was no good and that the primary reason that he was in the current shape he was in was because of the family but they didn’t care. The end result was that we had to load Thomas back onto the pickup truck and drive him back to the emergency room at General Hospital. The first thing that the security guards thought when we drove up to the doors of the emergency room was that Thomas had died. They were angry when they found out that the mother caused problems. They told us to unload Thomas and put him on the ground in front of the emergency room. There were several people who wanted to hit the mother that day. They told the mother that she would be staying at her son’s side and she gave the same response to the guards that she had given to the Brothers of Charity. The guards had guns though and she had no choice but to listen. The guards called her a “lougawou” (werewolf in english), which in Creole means an evil spirit who takes away children, and that if she would try to leave the guards would shoot her. She ended up staying the night. Thomas’s father came the next morning to the hospital to find out why the mother never came home. This family definitely is not a Christian family. Thomas died on Tuesday morning. We know that he died a Christian and is now in heaven where he suffers no more and enjoying eternal life. He suffered much because of the situation at the hospital and for having a rotten family.
While walking out the doors of the emergency room on Saturday afternoon, one of the security guards introduced us to Kiki. Kiki is a dwarf with a hunchback who only has one arm that is also deformed. He looks about 14 years old and is about the size of an 8 year old but he may also be in his early twenties. He doesn’t know how old he is. His family had brought him to General Hospital from Cap Haitian 3 months ago with a head and leg injury. They abandoned him there and since that time the workers at the hospital have helped to look after him. The security guards by the emergency room have watched over him all this time and they asked us if we could help Kiki. We asked Kiki if he wanted to go with us and he eagerly said yes. Since that day we now have another resident here at Coram Deo. Benson especially is taken by Kiki. He brings him water and for the last couple of days has been trying to teach him to write with his feet. Kiki has never had the opportunity to go to school and is enjoying sitting in school here at Coram Deo. Nobody thinks twice that he writes with his feet. He is also not shy. While at General Hospital he met an actor who is the Mr. Bean of Haiti. This comedian’s name is Jezifra and he put him in one of his films. He is shown in the film lifting a large cooking pot with his feet and also opening a bottle of coca cola with his feet. Pray that Kiki can adapt here well and will be encouraged to strive to accomplish things (even if it means using his feet).
A few of the patients in the emergency room can’t leave even if they wanted to. They can’t leave because they are chained to the bed. These young men are prisoners who are in the hospital getting medical treatment. They complain about being ignored by the state but they are the responsibility of the police/UN. Another man is there because he was badly beaten. A couple of the guards say the police did this and others say the police found him on the street beaten. The elderly lady who is there is really suffering. Both her legs are rotten below the knee. She looks like a living corpse. She came into the emergency room on October 13th and nothing has been done for her since. She needs to have both legs amputated. Because she hasn’t eaten in a while she is just skin and bones. Pray for her and her devoted husband who remains by her side. We were able to help a couple of people this week who came into the emergency department to get care. We told them that this wasn’t a good place to be. We drove one elderly man over to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital on Delmas 19 to get stitches in his forehead from a fall on the street. One father came in with his young son who had broken his elbow the day before while taking a fall walking home from school. Medecines Sans Frontieres couldn’t help him so we directed them to the Baptist Mission Hospital in Fermathe. Pray that the strike ends soon. There are a lot of people who need medical treatment and not being able to find it right now. The government met with the residents and medical staff on Tuesday and made arrangements to pay some of their salary. Hopefully Monday will mean an end to the hospital strike.
We went with Angelo Lafortune and his mother to the US Consulate to show them that he returned from his follow-up visit to his neurosurgeon in the United States. He didn’t end up needing additional brain surgery. He has some visual problems caused by the brain tumor and his mother has registered him at St. Vincents’ which is a school for handicapped children here in Port-au-Prince. While in the United States Angelo’s father suddenly died here in Haiti. Pray for Angelo, that his tumor doesn’t grow back and that he can do well at school and for his mother as she does the best she can to raise her son as a widow.
Lucson Jean, a 3-year-old boy has been admitted this week to Grace Childrens Hospital, which is a tuberculosis hospital for children located on Delmas 31. He has Potts disease, which is tuberculosis of the spine. Pray for those who are caring for him and that the treatment that Lucson receives will help him.
We also got word that Chardlyne Jules, a hydrocephalus baby who was operated on in May 2008 has died. Pray that a good post-op program can be put in place by Haitian doctors willing to treat hydrocephalus children who have post-surgery complications.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Hi! This week was busy dealing with the effects of the residents’ strike at the state hospitals. We have been going to the hospital daily. Last Saturday afternoon we went with Pastor Pierre to meet Thomas, one of the people with gangrene. There was another church group in the emergency room as well visiting the people and praying with them. They also brought them bags of drinking water. Thomas was in bad shape and I wasn’t sure that he would survive. He had already been in the hospital for 2 months untreated and not being looked after by his family. What started out as a boil on his behind turned into a severe case of gangrene that had spread down his leg. We wanted to find out if he was a Christian. He was and asked for prayer. We talked with him about trying to find another place for him at the Brothers of Charity Hospice which is located in Cite Pele. The plan was that if we could make arrangements there we would transfer him out of General Hospital the next day. We went and spoke with the Brothers of Charity and they agreed to take him in. We borrowed a stretcher from them and went back to General Hospital on Sunday to find that Thomas’s mother was with him. I guess the phone call that we had made Thursday helped out after all to get his family to come to the hospital. We then transported Thomas in the back of the pickup truck and drove over to Cite Pele. He was placed in a bed there and I thought that now everything is settled for him but that was not the case. We went back to Cite Pele late in the afternoon. The Brothers of Charity were angry with Thomas’s mother. They had asked her to stay and look after her son for the evening and she refused. I tried to explain to them that the family was no good and that the primary reason that he was in the current shape he was in was because of the family but they didn’t care. The end result was that we had to load Thomas back onto the pickup truck and drive him back to the emergency room at General Hospital. The first thing that the security guards thought when we drove up to the doors of the emergency room was that Thomas had died. They were angry when they found out that the mother caused problems. They told us to unload Thomas and put him on the ground in front of the emergency room. There were several people who wanted to hit the mother that day. They told the mother that she would be staying at her son’s side and she gave the same response to the guards that she had given to the Brothers of Charity. The guards had guns though and she had no choice but to listen. The guards called her a “lougawou” (werewolf in english), which in Creole means an evil spirit who takes away children, and that if she would try to leave the guards would shoot her. She ended up staying the night. Thomas’s father came the next morning to the hospital to find out why the mother never came home. This family definitely is not a Christian family. Thomas died on Tuesday morning. We know that he died a Christian and is now in heaven where he suffers no more and enjoying eternal life. He suffered much because of the situation at the hospital and for having a rotten family.
While walking out the doors of the emergency room on Saturday afternoon, one of the security guards introduced us to Kiki. Kiki is a dwarf with a hunchback who only has one arm that is also deformed. He looks about 14 years old and is about the size of an 8 year old but he may also be in his early twenties. He doesn’t know how old he is. His family had brought him to General Hospital from Cap Haitian 3 months ago with a head and leg injury. They abandoned him there and since that time the workers at the hospital have helped to look after him. The security guards by the emergency room have watched over him all this time and they asked us if we could help Kiki. We asked Kiki if he wanted to go with us and he eagerly said yes. Since that day we now have another resident here at Coram Deo. Benson especially is taken by Kiki. He brings him water and for the last couple of days has been trying to teach him to write with his feet. Kiki has never had the opportunity to go to school and is enjoying sitting in school here at Coram Deo. Nobody thinks twice that he writes with his feet. He is also not shy. While at General Hospital he met an actor who is the Mr. Bean of Haiti. This comedian’s name is Jezifra and he put him in one of his films. He is shown in the film lifting a large cooking pot with his feet and also opening a bottle of coca cola with his feet. Pray that Kiki can adapt here well and will be encouraged to strive to accomplish things (even if it means using his feet).
A few of the patients in the emergency room can’t leave even if they wanted to. They can’t leave because they are chained to the bed. These young men are prisoners who are in the hospital getting medical treatment. They complain about being ignored by the state but they are the responsibility of the police/UN. Another man is there because he was badly beaten. A couple of the guards say the police did this and others say the police found him on the street beaten. The elderly lady who is there is really suffering. Both her legs are rotten below the knee. She looks like a living corpse. She came into the emergency room on October 13th and nothing has been done for her since. She needs to have both legs amputated. Because she hasn’t eaten in a while she is just skin and bones. Pray for her and her devoted husband who remains by her side. We were able to help a couple of people this week who came into the emergency department to get care. We told them that this wasn’t a good place to be. We drove one elderly man over to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital on Delmas 19 to get stitches in his forehead from a fall on the street. One father came in with his young son who had broken his elbow the day before while taking a fall walking home from school. Medecines Sans Frontieres couldn’t help him so we directed them to the Baptist Mission Hospital in Fermathe. Pray that the strike ends soon. There are a lot of people who need medical treatment and not being able to find it right now. The government met with the residents and medical staff on Tuesday and made arrangements to pay some of their salary. Hopefully Monday will mean an end to the hospital strike.
We went with Angelo Lafortune and his mother to the US Consulate to show them that he returned from his follow-up visit to his neurosurgeon in the United States. He didn’t end up needing additional brain surgery. He has some visual problems caused by the brain tumor and his mother has registered him at St. Vincents’ which is a school for handicapped children here in Port-au-Prince. While in the United States Angelo’s father suddenly died here in Haiti. Pray for Angelo, that his tumor doesn’t grow back and that he can do well at school and for his mother as she does the best she can to raise her son as a widow.
Lucson Jean, a 3-year-old boy has been admitted this week to Grace Childrens Hospital, which is a tuberculosis hospital for children located on Delmas 31. He has Potts disease, which is tuberculosis of the spine. Pray for those who are caring for him and that the treatment that Lucson receives will help him.
We also got word that Chardlyne Jules, a hydrocephalus baby who was operated on in May 2008 has died. Pray that a good post-op program can be put in place by Haitian doctors willing to treat hydrocephalus children who have post-surgery complications.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
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